CHINA

The Taiwanese government is doing damage control after the latest Google Maps upgrade revealed their most sensitive missile sites, down to the launcher types and models of the missiles, for all to see – including archenemy China.

Defense Ministry officials in Taipei are asking Google to blur the missile site locations, which were exposed in painstaking 3D detail in the latest upgrade of Google’s satellite map app, for the sake of national security – while urging the public to remain calm.
Taiwan to talk with Google over exposed missile positionhttps://t.co/mO6SE19bmj pic.twitter.com/XM1DrzNL7Y

— Focus Taiwan (@Focus_Taiwan) February 15, 2019

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is an industrial strength "oops there!!" on Google's part, and the timing could possibly be worse, given the current tensions between mainland China and Taiwan, but I sure has heck don't see how.

CEO Tim Cook warned at the start of January that Cupertino's mobile phone revenue for Q1 of fiscal '19 ended 29 December were likely to be down 15 per cent, and so it proved when those numbers were filed.

Now Canalys has painted more colour on Apple's actual shipments: Apple sold 2.6 million fewer mobiles in China in the quarter, down almost 18 per cent to 11.5 million units. This was in a market that had declined 10.8 per cent to 100.7 million.

U.S President Donald Trump’s executive order instructing the American government this week to prioritize the development of artificial intelligence (AI) could trigger a “new high-technology Cold War” between the United States and China, the Beijing-run Global Times cautioned on Tuesday.

Beijing’s warning comes on the same day that Adm. Philip Davidson, the top American top in the Indo-Pacific region, told lawmakers that China’s “massive effort to grow and modernize” its military, including endeavors to manufacture “artificial intelligence-equipped weapons,” is “eroding” America’s “relative competitive military advantage” in Asia.

US media reports about Beijing holding talks with the Venezuelan opposition to protect its investment and ensure Caracas will pay on its debts are false and unprofessional, with a US newspaper having failed to wait for a response to its request for Beijing's comment, the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

"The Wall Street Journal published this material yesterday at 2 p.m. [Eastern Time, 19:00 GMT], while we were preparing a response [to their request]. It is not very constructive and [actually] unprofessional. In fact, this is a false message, it's fake," Hua Chunying said.

On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal newspaper claimed, citing sources, that China had been holding talks with the Venezuelan opposition in a bid to hedge risks for its investments in the Latin American country as pressure was mounting on President Nicolas Maduro.

Venezuela hopes to create a trade bloc consisting of China, India and Russia to help the South American country settle oil payments in currencies other than the dollar, its oil minister said on Tuesday.

The strife-torn country is looking for alternative payment methods to keep oil flowing to India, a crucial export market, especially after the United States imposed sanctions curbing the OPEC member’s crude exports to the United States.

“We all can build one economy and that economy does not necessarily have to be within the dollar economy,” Manuel Quevedo said, referring to China, Russia and India.

Quevedo, who on Monday said Caracas was open to barter trade with New Delhi, declined to disclose details on how he planned to do business with India.

China has taken over Scotland's oil production and now controls two of the North Sea's biggest oilfields.

According to The Times' analysis of China National Offshore Oil Corporation's (CNOOC) accounts, a CNOOC-owned company Nexen extracts nearly 200,000 barrels of oil per day across those two fields. This makes it the largest producer in the area.

According to The Times, CNOOC, a state-owned oil company and is controlled by China's ruling communist party, has been able to grow its marketshare in Scotland rapidly because former Chancellor George Osborne gave tax breaks for oil companies in the North Sea.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Budapest on Monday, kicking off a multi-leg tour of Central Europe in a bid to cement US partnerships in the region against other major powers, including Russia and China.

Washington is preparing to offer Warsaw an increased US military presence in Poland in exchange for a Polish refusal to engage in closer cooperation with China and Iran, Rzeczpospolita reported, citing diplomatic sources.

"The situation is very dynamic. At the moment, the Americans are improving their offer qualitatively. Its essence is that no one in the world should have any doubts about America's unconditional involvement in the defence of Poland," one high-ranking diplomatic source told the newspaper.

More than two months after President Trump and President Xi agreed to the trade truce over a steak dinner in Buenos Aires, a second meeting between the two leaders - one that Trump insists would be essential to striking a final trade deal - remains in doubt. But according to several Trump advisors quoted by Bloomberg, China is still pushing for a meeting (though, given that the Trump administration needs to keep the deal talk alive to buoy stocks in the face of growing calls for an earnings recession, these assurances should be taken with a grain of salt).

As China’s mass incarceration of members of its Uighur Muslim minority in its far-flung Xinjiang province has elicited condemnation from editorial boards of US newspapers to, more recently, the leader of one of the world’s largest Muslim nations, one of America’s most famous private security contractors – and, incidentally, brother to President Trump’s secretary of education, has found himself caught up in the burgeoning controversy.

Five years after gaining the favor of the chairman of one of China’s largest conglomerates, Blackwater founder Erik Prince, who became chairman of Hong Kong-based Frontier Services Group (which, instead of offering private mercenary armies for hire, claims to provide training and support services) back in 2013, has been steadily stepping back from the firm he helped build as he cedes more and more control to forces in the mainland.

Senior U.S. defense officials are growing increasingly concerned that the Chinese military can monitor and potentially target U.S. and allied satellites from a new deep space ground station in the Western Hemisphere, located in the deserts of Patagonia.

In wide-ranging testimony before the U.S. Congress on Feb. 7, Adm. Craig Faller, the newly confirmed commander of U.S. Southern Command, warned lawmakers about China’s accelerated expansion into Latin America. Not only does China support the autocratic regimes in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua and employ predatory lending practices across the region, but it is also investing in key infrastructure such as a deep-space tracking facility in Argentina, Faller told lawmakers.

British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson is expected to make a speech on Monday, in which he’ll say that Britain must stand up to those who “flout international law”. He will also say that the UK needs bolder and stronger armed forces prepared to use “hard power”.

Williamson will also confirm that the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth is to be deployed to the Pacific region along with F-35 jets. China claims ownership to several disputed islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Earlier, Japan, India, Australia and the US formed the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue group and conducted joint naval exercises in the region in an effort to restrain Beijing. According to Williamson, the UK will have to be ready to show the high price of aggressive behavior and to strengthen its resilience.

US State Secretary Mike Pompeo's quest to scare Hungary away from dealing with Russia and China appears to have turned sour, as Budapest said it's fed up with lectures about its foreign policy.

Pompeo is on a five-day massive charm offensive in Eastern Europe seeking to "make up" for the time the US "shunned" the nations of the region "in a way that drove them to fill a vacuum with folks who didn't share our values," as he himself put it.

UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is itching for conflict with Russia and China. He’s not mad. Not even slightly. But he is stupid. Very.

Unlike former fireplace salesman Gavin Williamson, I am no military expert. But then you do not need to be one to understand that while Britain going to war with Russia and China might work as a video game, the real thing would be an exceedingly bad idea.

So why then in a speech delivered to the Royal United Services Institute in London, did Mr Williamson’s argument on the feasibility of the real thing elicit applause rather than the shrieks of horror and demands he be sacked forthwith it should have? This is a serious question, by the way. It is one that cuts through British establishment verbiage to reveal a country ruled not by the sober and doughty political heavyweights of years gone by, but by foaming fanatics in expensive suits.

The UK should strengthen its global presence and enhance its lethality according to UK Defense Minister Gavin Williamson as he addressed the Royal United Services Institute on Monday.

The cabinet minister unveiled plans to modernize and strengthen the UK armed forces to prepare Britain in the post-Brexit world. Williamson spoke about UK plans to send its new aircraft carrier to the Pacific – where there is currently a territorial dispute in the South China Sea — invest in offensive cyber capabilities and adopt a harder military stance after Brexit. The UK withdrawal from the EU is of course only weeks away as Prime Minister Theresa May tries to strike a last-minute deal with Europe.

Nothing better illustrates Washington’s opposition to democracy and self-determination than the blatantly public coup Washington has organized against the properly elected president of Venezuela.

Washington has been trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government for years. Washington wants the state owned oil company to be privatized so that it can fall into the hands of US oil companies. That would ensure Washington’s control over Venezuela. Transferring the wealth out of the country would prevent any economic development from inside the country. Every aspect of the economy would end up in the hands of US corporations. The exploitation would be ruthless and brutal.

Venezuelans understand this, which is why Washington, despite wrecking the Venezuelan economy and offering enormous bribes to the Venezuelan military, has not yet been able to turn the people and the troops against Maduro.

A Republican senator has accused China of preparing for World War III. Like most of Washington’s statements concerning China, the lawmaker has completely ignored the US’ role in creating such a scenario in the first place.
Just last week, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma made the allegation that China’s military was preparing for World War III.

“It’s like you’re preparing for World War III,” he said during a Senate hearing focused on the so-called challenges presented by Russia and China. “You’re talking to our allies over there and you wonder whose side they’re going to be on.”

According to Inhofe, the US has sat back and watched as China has built its military presence in the South China Sea, turning artificial islands into potential launch pads for its military.

Perhaps out of humiliation over the ongoing spectacular tragicomedy that is Brexit, and in desperate need of a distraction from her domestic political troubles, Theresa May has taken a page out of the the US neocon playbook, and has decided to send Britain’s new aircraft carrier to China’s backyard in what The Times has dubbed "a show of strength" - just in case Beijing is unclear how to respond to this hilarious development - because apparently the UK believes it is a US stunt-double when it comes to sending Beijing messages about its territorial ambitions in the South China Sea.

Webmaster's Commentary:

OK, that's it: in making this move, Prime Minister May has proven, without a doubt, that she has gone completely round the bend, gone "mental", and has to be removed for the safety and continued lives of her brother and sister Brits.

And the worst thing about this move, is that Chinese Military and other officials are laughing their collective heads off at it.

Melbourne, Australia - Members of the UighurMuslim community in Australia are renewing calls for action from the government amid reports that a number of Australian permanent residents are effectively trapped in China's Xinjiang province.

The Guardian reported on Monday that at least 17 Australian residents are being held under house arrest, in prison or detained in so-called "re-education" centres in the far western region of Xinjiang, also referred to by some Uighurs as East Turkistan.

They are thought to have been detained while on trips to visit relatives in China and some have family members who are Australian citizens.

"As soon as they arrive, their passport is taken away because they're holding a Chinese passport, even though they have permanent residency," Nurgul Sawut, the Uighur-Australian activist who provided The Guardian with the details of the 17 affected, told Al Jazeera.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Were I part of this group, I wouldn't hold my breath that Australia will do anything for the cause of the Uighurs in Western China. The reason?!?

The article goes on to state: "China valued at $183 billion (up 16% on 2016), accounting for 24% of total trade. China remained Australia's largest two-way trading partner, export market and import source."

Unfortunately, trade tends to "rub out" human rights considerations, and this is why we will not hear a peep out of Canberra, regarding possible Uighur human rights offenses by the Chinese.

Reddit, which censors dissidents in America, is now being funded by Tencent, a multi-billion dollar company which censors dissidents in China.

From NewsBusters, "Chinese Censorship Company Invests Millions in Reddit":

What happens when the front page of the internet is funded by the company that made the Great Firewall in China?

Reddit, the internet forum for communities, posts, and news, is currently fundraising to keep itself afloat, with a $300 million goal. Half of that goal has already been met, thanks to a massive investment of $150 million from Chinese censorship company Tencent. The company is in charge of blocking, blacklisting and preventing internet access to certain groups, sites, and information in China. Ironically, Tencent is responsible for the banning of Reddit in China.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Like we don't have entities in the US doing precisely the same thing, by deplatforming, and making it all but impossible to find a post with a negative view of these perpetual wars?!?

The unholy Triumvirate of Facebook, Google, and Twitter, do this kind of work the US government wants them to do; so why blame China for doing the same thing?!?

China’s Foreign Ministry expressed anger on Monday after two US navy ships sailed near islands claimed by Beijing in the disputed South China Sea. The ships entered the waters without China’s permission, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.The US warships sailed near the islands the same day that China resumed trade talks with Washington.

Peace talks and a political path are the “only way” to move towards a lasting peace in Venezuela, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday.

The statement by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying was made after a question about the meeting of the International Contact Group led by Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez and Spain, Italy, Portugal and Sweden.

“China believes that Venezuela’s affairs must be resolved by the people of Venezuela, within the framework of its Constitution and laws, and through peaceful dialogue and political pathways,” the spokesman said.

China has reportedly deployed a fleet of nearly 100 ships to the Thitu Island, one of several disputed islands in the South China Sea, in an effort to stop ongoing construction work being carried out by the Philippine government.

According to a Wednesday report published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a think tank run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing recently began dispatching vessels from the Subi Reef, which lies roughly 12 nautical miles from Thitu.

On December 3, 2018, with construction days away from beginning on Thitu, China deployed at least 24 vessels to the disputed island, the report notes. Construction had previously been halted due to poor weather and rough seas.

The Japanese government created a crisis response headquarters on Monday after a Chinese patrol ship entered Japanese territorial waters next to the disputed islands in the East China Sea, NHK broadcaster reported.

Four Chinese corvettes approached the territorial waters of Japan, while one of them crossed into the Japanese area near the disputed Senkaku Islands, according to the NHK broadcaster.

The crisis response headquarters will collect information about the incident and monitor the situation, the news outlet added.

Huawei racks up 23 per cent gain in shipments in fourth quarter against 9.7 per cent slump in industry shipments

Apple and Xiaomi have both encountered a slump in shipments in China in the December quarter, the worst performers among the top five vendors in the country amid an overall shrinking of demand in the world’s largest smartphone market.

Apple reported a 19.9 per cent decline in shipments in China in the fourth quarter, but climbed one place to No 4 in smartphone shipments after Xiaomi did even worse, tumbling 34.9 per cent during the same period, according to a report by research firm IDC published on Monday. Overall industry shipments for China fell 9.7 per cent to 103 million units.

Bucking the trend, Huawei Technologies registered a 23.3 per cent gain, while second- and third-placed Oppo and Vivo eked out modest gains of 1.5 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively.

Brexit could boost UK’s military standing against China and Russia, says defence secretary Williamson
He intends to argue in a speech at the Royal United Services Institute that a post-Brexit UK should redefine itself as a global power prepared to intervene against countries that ‘flout international law’
***
The cabinet minister, who is increasingly keen to talk up Brexit at a time when a deal is elusive, is expected to say leaving the EU will allow the UK “to consider how we not only project but maximise our influence around the world in the months and years to come”.

Green New Deal (GND) contains Universal Basic Income (UBI)
UBI is money for free…for everyone, even if “unwilling to work”
The payoff for working remains: more resources and a better life
It’s almost guaranteed that in my lifetime, UBI will happen
UBI is to allow minimal survivable life capability, a safety net
like…Social Security, food stamps, welfare
GND might not contain anything that’s practical or possible
But GND is directionally positive
The Congressional border budget plan won’t be supported…
…by the border control experts
Congress is NOT a functional body for this issue
Declaring a national emergency solution…supported by the experts
Congress isn’t able to provide a solution supported by experts
CNN isn’t as rabidly anti-Trump lately, what changed?
8,000 lies in two years supposedly, did any of them matter?
There’s no examples of damage from POTUS hyperbole

The European Commission on Wednesday vetoed the planned merger of the rail units of French firm Alstom and Germany’s Siemens, a transaction that the governments in both Paris and Berlin had envisaged as creating a champion that could compete with Chinese competition.

The regulatory body’s decision has set up a confrontation with the European Union’s most influential members and could force changes to antitrust rules.

German Economic Affairs Minister Peter Altmaier announced immediately after the news that a joint effort with the French government was under way to seek reforms.

As US business leaders grapple with consequences of the Trump administration’s inclination to use tariffs, new research released this month detailed the potential scale of the self-inflicted pain.

Washington DC-based consulting firm Trade Partnership Worldwide put together a report estimating the possible effects should the US go through with threatened escalation in tariffs on Chinese goods and new duties on foreign autos.

The damage inflicted to the US economy due to tariffs already imposed, as well as possible additional tariffs and retaliation, could end up shaving 1% off of GDP growth, while costing more than 2 million jobs, the economists found.

US stocks fell on Thursday after White House officials signaled that President Donald Trump will not meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping before a critical March 1 deadline.

Trump later confirmed the news, replying “no” when asked by reporters in the Oval Office about a possible meeting. US officials have said that tariffs on Chinese goods will be raised if a deal is not reached by the end of this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index closed down 0.87% and 0.94% respectively. Along with trade concerns, economic data released on Thursday reflected slowing global economic growth.

NORTH KOREA’S LEADER HAS CHARMED TRUMP, XI AND MOON. BUT ARE THEY ALL JUST KEEPING UP WITH THE KIMS?

When Kim Jong-un delivered his annual New Year’s address last month, the scene was unrecognisable from his first speech as leader of North Korea six years prior. Gone were the Maoist suit and lapel pin featuring the images of his father, previous ruler Kim Jong-il, and grandfather Kim Il-sung, who founded the country.

In their place was a suit and tie that would be at home in any office in London or New York. Rather than sheltering behind a podium in an austere auditorium, his voice faltering intermittently as it had before, Kim sat composed in an armchair in a wood-panelled office.
***
Kim’s 30-minute address focused heavily on the economy, but he found time to say that North Korea was willing to continue denuclearisation talks with the United States – and to warn that the hermit kingdom would take a “new path” if Washington did not ease its pressure against it.

American government has become a collection of sordid and dangerous clowns. It was not always thus. Until Bush II, those governing were never lunatics. Eisenhower, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Obama, Clinton had their defects, were sometimes corrupt, and could be disagreed with on many grounds. They weren’t crazy. Today’s administration would seem unwholesome in a New York bus station at three in the morning. They are not normal American politicians.

In particular they seem to be pushing for war with Iran, China, Russia, and Venezuela. And–this is important–their behavior is not a matter of liberals catfighting with conservatives. All former presidents carefully avoided war with the Soviet Union, which carefully avoided war with America.

During its final years, Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong became the most densely populated place on earth with 50,000 people crammed into just a few city blocks.
Two Canadian photographers, Greg Girard and Ian Lamboth, took photos of the city before it was demolished in 1992.

A Republican senator has accused China of preparing for World War III. Like most of Washington’s statements concerning China, the lawmaker has completely ignored the US’ role in creating such a scenario in the first place.
Just last week, Republican Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma made the allegation that China’s military was preparing for World War III.

“It’s like you’re preparing for World War III,” he said during a Senate hearing focused on the so-called challenges presented by Russia and China. “You’re talking to our allies over there and you wonder whose side they’re going to be on.”

According to Inhofe, the US has sat back and watched as China has built its military presence in the South China Sea, turning artificial islands into potential launch pads for its military.

United States trade negotiators will make the trek back to China starting February 11 to participate in high-level talks ahead of the March 1 tariffs truce deadline.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will take part in principal-level meetings in Beijing with Chinese counterparts on February 14 and 15, President Donald Trump announced Friday. Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Jeffrey Gerrish will lead advance deputy-level talks beginning February 11, ahead of Lighthizer and Mnuchin’s arrival.

China is using its One Belt One Road (OBOR) project as a tool to expand its financial and military influence across Latin America and Africa, the two American commanders respectively charged with overseeing United States military activities in those regions cautioned on Thursday.

Both commanders accused China of using “debt traps” through OBOR, also known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), to undermine the sovereignty of borrowing countries in Africa and Latin America.

China’s ambitious OBOR seeks to revive the ancient Silk Road by linking Beijing to Europe and the Western Hemisphere through a massive network of land and sea routes.

With just three weeks left until the deadline for the US and China to reach a trade deal, there has been remarkably little progress: after several months of talks, the two sides are still far apart on major issues, as Larry Kudlow admitted earlier on Thursday, even as new multibillion-dollar U.S. tariffs are set to kick in next month if no accord is achieved.

While the Pentagon is withdrawing from the « Greater Middle East » to invest in the « Caribbean Basin », the White House is getting ready to reorganise its allies in the region. To this aim, a « Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East » will be held in Warsaw on the 14 and 15 February. All the allies of the USA will be participating, but not their partners : neither Russia, nor China.

China, a major consumer of mined diamonds, now has a realistic chance of becoming a supplier of man-made gems and shaping the industry, analysts say.

Unlike naturally occurring diamonds, which form over the course of billions of years, synthetic diamonds are made in a matter of weeks.

Chinese companies have mastered the technologies to manufacture them en masse within a short period of time. The products are practically indistinguishable from those mined from earth.

China has been producing well over 10 billion carats of diamonds annually for almost a decade, according to the country’s industry estimates. Most of the products have gone to industrial use such as in abrasives. They were provided for aeronautics, oil rigs and electronic chips.

As competition intensified and technology matured, Chinese companies have shifted from abrasives to jewelry.

High level extortions are made of this. China is considered far more dangerous than Russia by the Deep State CIA and State Department. It’s no wonder that the Trump administration is giving in to the pressure from sections inside the US government that are far beyond his executive control, to pin down civilian executives with close ties to the Chinese government.

The US Department of Justice is ramping up its pressure against China’s most priced tech giant Huawei for having the edge in 5G and AI technologies that will be the foundation of the next stage of our devolution, i.e. Technocratic Dictatorship.

Unsealed indictments include collusion with Iran to bypass US sanctions against the latter.

According to a report in South China Morning Post, China - already on the fast track towards modernising its military - has set an ambitious goal to put its naval fleet at par with that of the US. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is being ramped up and the addition of more aircraft carriers is being seen by Beijing as a logical step in keeping the Americans at bay.

While China and Russia solidify their economic and political alliance, the U.S. is missing an historic chance to join a multilateral world, instead clinging to military empire...

We should know by now that the heart of the 21stCentury Great Game is the myriad layers of the battle between the United States and the partnership of Russia and China.

Even the U.S. National Defense Strategy says so: “The central challenge to U.S. prosperity and security is the reemergence of long-term, strategic competition by … revisionist powers.” The recently published assessment on U.S. defense implications of China’s global expansionsays so too.

The clash will frame the emergence of a possibly new, post-ideological, strategic world order amidst an extremely volatile unpredictability in which peace is war and an accident may spark a nuclear confrontation.

The U.S. was the first major power to recognize Juan Guaido as the “legitimate” president of Venezuela, and now the UKand most other European nations have also backed Guaido.

But Russia and China continue to back Maduro, and so that sets up a very interesting situation.

Will the western powers go ahead with their plans for regime change even though the international community is divided?

In particular, Russia has a very strong incentive to keep Maduro in power. The following comes from Zero Hedge…

“Russia is now so deeply invested in the Maduro regime that the only realistic option is to double down,” writes senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center Alexander Gabuev.

Webmaster's Commentary:

There is a grave potential for a proxy war here, with Russia and China on Venezuela's side, and the US, (and potentially, Europe, and Israel on the other).

I hope that the resolution of this crisis will be as bloodless as possible; however, unfortunately, just because something would be the most ham-fistedly, pig-headedly stupid thing the US government could possibly do, is no guarantee that it will not do it.

A security firm founded by Erik Prince, the former boss of the private military company Blackwater, has announced a deal with the Chinese state to operate a training facility in China’s largely Muslim Xinjiang province. In the months following the United States invasion of Iraq, Blackwater was hired by the Department of State to provide diplomatic security at several locations throughout the Middle Eastern country. By 2010, when the company was abruptly sold to a group of private investors, its tactics in Iraq had prompted international controversy. Prince went on to help found Frontier Services Group (FSG), another private security firm registered in Hong Kong. The company provides security training to personnel working for Chinese companies. Its specialization is training personnel of Chinese firms based abroad, mainly in regions of Africa.

Webmaster's Commentary:

WOW, building "re-education camps" (read: detention camps) for detaining China's Uighur must be lucrative in the extreme!! That must be why Prince is denying any knowledge of, or involvement in, the deal:

China's threats of new tariffs on $60 billion worth of U.S. imports will create shifts in the energy market, as American liquefied natural gas makes the list of goods Beijing will target, analysts said.

The move to include LNG raised eyebrows as China had previously held back at including the fuel on the list of products subject to tariffs. That is as the country looks to natural gas as part of its efforts to clean up politically sensitive air pollution.

But things have changed since trade tensions with the U.S. escalated dramatically in recent weeks and some have questioned if Beijing's move will hit American gas exports. The U.S. is the world's top producer of natural gas and is a growing major exporter of LNG.

A security firm founded by Erik Prince, the former boss of the private military company Blackwater, has announced a deal with the Chinese state to operate a training facility in China’s largely Muslim Xinjiang province. In the months following the United States invasion of Iraq, Blackwater was hired by the Department of State to provide diplomatic security at several locations throughout the Middle Eastern country.

As we previewed below, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the US will withdraw from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty immediately, prompting threats of a Russian "response" from Moscow.

According to RT, Pompeo said the US could return to compliance with the treaty if Moscow meets Washington's demands within the next 180 days. To convince the US to back down, Washington has insisted that Russia cease development of a new cruise missile. Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that it's in violation of the treaty.

The withdrawal, which has been expected for months, will formally take place on Saturday.

The US’ seeming unwillingness to turn a sympathetic ear to Russia's reasoning with regard to the 1987 INF Treaty could be not connected with Moscow's alleged violations of the pact, scholars told Sputnik, commenting on the Russian Ministry of Defence's presentation of the 9M729 missile, which was snubbed by NATO officials.

The primary motivation behind Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty is that China is not a participant of the pact, says Rajeswari Pillai, senior fellow? and head of the Nuclear and Space Policy Initiative? Observer Research Foundation.

Speaking to Sputnik, Pillai pointed out that both Russia and the US have repeatedly accused each other of violating the treaty. However, "the real problem with the INF is not so much about the violations by Russia and the US, but that China is outside the treaty", he suggested.

China’s state-run Global Times on Friday applauded the launch of a European system to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran, pleased by the damage it could inflict upon U.S. sanctions against China, Venezuela, North Korea, and other countries.

The Chinese saluted France, Germany, and Britain for moving toward a day when the U.S. dollar is no longer the world’s dominant currency and perhaps Chinese money will take its place.

The Global Times gave the French, Germans, and British a pat on the back for exercising “economic sovereignty” against “Washington’s imposition of its foreign policy on other countries,” noting that Chinese interests have also felt American pressure.

Pakistan is making important strides in its military and naval capacities with the help of China, relying less on US-made weaponry. Despite accepting money from all sides, Pakistan’s relationship with China continues to be strong.
After the Trump administration decided to suspend $3 billion in security assistance to Pakistan, complaining that Islamabad fails to do enough to combat terrorism, Washington has risked pushing Pakistan into the open arms of a number of other notable nations.

China-Pakistan relationship continues to strengthen
China has been a key ally for Pakistan in recent times and is almost certainly the reason why the US has taken a sharp turn in its approach to dealing with the country. (Considering that the Bush administration was caught red-handed funding Pakistani terrorist groups, Washington’s recent disdain for Islamabad makes little sense in the context of wider US imperialism).

China won't give up on embattled Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro anytime soon even as the US-led international noose of "delegitimizing" hangs around the socialist strongman, according to government statements released on Friday. Beijing reaffirmed it maintains “normal state-to-state relations” and cooperation between the two sides “shouldn’t be undermined no matter how the situation evolves,” according to press briefing by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Or rather, we could more simply translate: with billions of dollars in credit on the line, "non-interference" is simply not an option for China.

“China has maintained close communication with all parties through different ways,” a ministry spokesperson said in response to question about whether China has had contact with National Assembly leader Juan Guaido. “We are ready to work with all parties to promote peace talks, and create favorable conditions for the proper settlement of the Venezuelan issue,” the ministry added.

A Hong Kong-Based training company launched by Blackwater founder Erik Prince is reportedly building a training center in the controversial Western Chinese region of Xinjiang according to Reuters, citing a company statement from Prince's Frontier Services Group (FSG).

While the exact details of the $600,000 (4 million yuan) project weren't disclosed, a state media report said that the facility will be able to train 8,000 people a year.

Despite being the founder, Executive Director and Deputy Chairman of FSG, Prince says he had "no knowledge or involvement" in the preliminary memorandum for the base, according to Reuters.

US Senate Armed Services Committee chief Jim Inhore says Washington is losing its military superiority over rivals and now needs significant investments to catch up.

In his article published in the Tulsa World newspaper, the senator notes that the US has lost an advantage in both conventional and advanced weapons, including artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons and even the use of “directed energy” technology.

Inhore points out that the US “won two world wars” because of its military superiority, adding that the Pentagon had as many aircraft at the end of the Cold War as Russia and China combined. However, in the last ten years military supremacy has degraded.

This is not the first time President Trump has torn up an international agreement.

But his decision to withdraw from the long-standing Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia is a milestone – and a disturbing one. After all, this is the treaty that helped bring the Cold War to a close.

It was signed in 1987 by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev to ban a dangerous new generation of intermediate and short-range weapons with a range of between 300 and 3,400 miles.

Launched from trucks on either side of the Iron Curtain, these weapons were hard for the enemy to find and destroy. More to the point, they introduced the terrifying idea of 'small' and more frequent nuclear conflicts.

the ongoing "soft coup" is also playing out within the halls of the central bank, where in addition to a lot of currency printing in recent years, Bloomberg reports that staffers are waging a small mutiny and refusing to sign-off on key bank transactions.

According to "four people with direct knowledge of the matter", some central bank employees received "early retirement offers" Friday after disregarding orders from upper management. The mini mutiny took place as staffers fret about potential consequences and repercussions of signing off on financial operations that have been barred by US sanctions, and as discontent bubbles over as Venezuela’s economic and political outlook deteriorates.

Webmaster's Commentary:

President Maduro, a word, please: when the banks and the military desert you, it truly may be time to seriously re-evaluate your options.

And sir, I would suggest, in the most sang-froid way, that your best possible help might come from Russia and China, neither of which want to see their investments in your country go "mammary glands up."

And, on a personal note, if this coup starts going successfully "full-tilt boogie", expect no better, in terms of your treatment, and ultimate disposal, by US-led mercs, than did Saddam Hussein or President Gaddafi got, at the hands of the invaders of their countries.

The US government so loves, almost maniacally, to prattle on about democracy, human rights, and human dignity; but when it comes to their much loved "regime change specials", particularly when a country has an embarrassment of riches, as does Venezuela, with its oil reserves, those values are absolutely practiced in the breach, rather than the observation of them.

Unless the Russians and Chines are willing to come to your aid, militarily, Were I you, I would begin a search on countries which have no extradition treaties with the US, and decide on a permanent vacation somewhere else.

The real reason for the US withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) is China deploying 1,000 medium and short-range missiles preventing a US presence in neighbouring seas, former Russian Security Council Secretary Andrey Kokoshin told Sputnik in an interview Friday.

"Evidently, the main target of the United States in connection with their withdrawal from this treaty is China. China, according to US estimates, set up a system of medium and short-range missiles of more than a thousand units aimed at the waters of the South China Sea and the East China Sea. It does not allow the United States to enter these waters with impunity using aircraft-carrier strike groups… Accordingly, the Chinese army set up a significant group of high-precision weapons, primarily ballistic missiles, which are capable of hitting US aircraft carriers and US military bases in the region", Kokoshin said.

Europe needs Russia's potential and most importantly the country's market and natural resources in order to withstand such superpowers as China and the United States, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told the Spiegel outlet.

"If we, as Europeans, want to survive politically and economically between [such] superpowers [as] the United States and China, we cannot do this without Russia's potential. We need the country's market and, first of all, its resources", Schroeder told the outlet in an interview released on Friday.

According to the former German chancellor, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been trying to build the kind of relations with Western countries that would be based on equality and respect, but he has been repeatedly rejected when trying to reach out to Europe.

A Hong Kong-listed security firm founded by Erik Prince has signed a preliminary deal with authorities in China to build a training centre in Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims have experienced a huge security crackdown.

Frontier Services Group, which specialises in providing security and logistics for businesses operating in risky regions, said it had signed a deal to run a training base in the city of Kashgar, according to a statement posted on its Chinese website.

The firm was founded by Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seal and the brother of the US education secretary, Betsy DeVos.

The meetings in Beijing during January 30-31 between Washington, Russia, China, France and the UK apparently failed to preserve the commitment to prohibit intermediate range nuclear weapons. Washington stuck to its determination to withdraw from the historic agreement of Reagan and Gorbachev to destroy all land-based intermediate range nuclear missiles. This US withdrawal from a nuclear weapons reduction agreement follows the George W. Bush/Cheney regime’s withdrawal from the anti-ballistic missile treaty. Indeed, since the Clinton regime, every US president has produced worsening trust between the two major nuclear powers.

No good can come of this as Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said at the Beijing meeting.

President Donald Trump and the neocon sofa samurais who surround him seem determined to pick a fight with China or Russia, or both at the same time. -- Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev just denounced the Trump administration’s nuclear policies as a gigantic mistake and threat to mankind. NATO, showing its subservience to Washington, bleated its support for US plans to deploy new medium-ranged missiles in Europe. But, in truth, Europeans are aghast at the prospect of a nuclear war fought in their backyards.

WE ALREADY KNOW it’s chilly on the moon. A lunar night lasts 14 Earth days, and its temperatures can dip into a cold so punishing it makes the polar vortex look like a hot tub. But yesterday, China’s space agency announced that the frigidity of the lunar night is even more intense than we’d thought: The country’s Chang’e 4 spacecraft recorded an icy low of –310 degrees Fahrenheit (–190 degrees Celsius).

Consisting of a stationary lander and a six-wheeled rover named Yutu-2, Chang’e 4 landed on the far side of the moon earlier this month—a first for any spacecraft. During its first lunar night, Chang’e 4 went into hibernation, relying on internal heat sources to survive.

Update: As we previewed below, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has announced that the US will withdraw from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces treaty immediately, prompting threats of a Russian "response" from Moscow.

According to RT, Pompeo said the US could return to compliance with the treaty if Moscow meets Washington's demands within the next 180 days. To convince the US to back down, Washington has insisted that Russia cease development of a new cruise missile. Moscow has repeatedly denied claims that it's in violation of the treaty.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This may well not turn out as those in the Bowels of Power in DC believe.

And why the 180 day deadline?!? That's a good 6 months out.

One has to wonder just what "death ray" the US government believes it's going to be able to add to its arsenal by that point in time, which would cause Russia and China to "blink" on the issue!?!

Washington might be setting up America for a first strike with the extraordinary stream of accusations and provocations issuing from people too stupid to be in possession of nuclear weapons. In the nuclear era, it is reckless for a government to replace diplomacy with threats and coercion. Washington’s recklessness is the most dangerous threat that the world faces.

There is a widespread concern in the world regarding China’s decelerating economic growth. The slowdown, if it continues, threatens economic activity almost everywhere. Growth in Germany, for example, has already cooled due to its exports of high-quality machinery to China dropping precipitously.

Those in the oil market also worry about China. The country’s economic growth has been a key driver of global crude oil consumption. Indeed, China accounts for one-third of the International Energy Agency’s projected 2019 increase in world oil use.

The latest US Treasury Department data shows that foreign investors slashed their holdings of American debt in November by $105 billion, from a year earlier, to $6.2 trillion.

China, the largest foreign holder of US debt, slashed its holdings for a sixth straight month in November. Beijing had $1.12 trillion in US Treasuries, down from $1.138 trillion in October. The decline brought China’s Treasury holdings to the lowest level since May 2017, the data showed.

A Hong Kong-listed security firm founded by Erik Prince has signed a preliminary deal with authorities in China to build a training centre in Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims have experienced a huge security crackdown.

Frontier Services Group, which specialises in providing security and logistics for businesses operating in risky regions, said it had signed a deal to run a training base in the city of Kashgar, according to a statement posted on its Chinese website.

The firm was founded by Erik Prince, a former US Navy Seal and the brother of the US education secretary, Betsy DeVos.

Given that China's President Xi Jinping started the year by obliquely warning the US to stay out of Taiwan's business, perhaps it's not surprising that Senators are starting to join US military commanders in warning Americans not to underestimate the threat posed by China's unprecedented military buildup in the Pacific.

In the latest - and perhaps the most stark - warning to date, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma - who recently took over as the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee - warned during a hearing about the challenges posed by China and Russia on Tuesday that people need to better understand the threats both countries pose to the international world order that America helped create, according to the Military Times.

According to allegations by the US intelligence director, Russia will implement more tools and methods to interfere in upcoming elections, but this time, it will have friends: China and, possibly, Iran.

Russia will seek to meddle in the US presidential election again — this time, with China, claims Dan Coats, the US Director of National Intelligence. According to the director's allegations, Russia has "learned from its operation in 2016," and will use a wider array of methods in the upcoming 2020 elections.

"We assess that foreign actors will view the 2020 US elections as an opportunity to advance their interests", Coats told the Senate intelligence committee, according to NBC News.

Russia, China and several other nations are developing powerful high-altitude nuclear bombs that can produce super-electromagnetic pulse (EMP) waves capable of knocking out critical electronic infrastructure, according to several declassified 2017 reports from the now-defunct Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack (see below).

"Foreign adversaries may aptly consider nuclear EMP attack a weapon that can gravely damage the U.S. by striking at its technological Achilles Heel, without having to confront the U.S. military," reads the report, which notes how foreign actors could use EMP attacks virtually anywhere in the world.

China is the most “concerning” counterintelligence threat against the United States, says FBI Director Christopher Wray.

“As I look at the landscape today and over the course of my career... the Chinese counterintelligence threat is more deep, more diverse, more vexing, more challenging, more comprehensive and more concerning than any counterintelligence threat I can think of,” he told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

The intelligence community also released a threat assessment, which claimed that China “presents a persistent cyber espionage threat and a growing attack threat to our core military and critical infrastructure systems.”

Beijing has test-fired its Dong-Feng 26 (DF-26) so-called "Guam killer" missile which can reportedly reach targets up to 3,500 miles away. While no specific threat has been made against Guam, experts cited by Chinese state media say the missiles can reach the Micronesian US island territory which houses several US military bases.